408 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



lection of the Iceland Ptarmigan, and even than the Scandinavian 

 " Rype " or Willow Grouse (L. subalpina), and measure, even in 

 their much-worn state of plumage, about 9j in. in the wing, 

 against 8 in. of a male Scandinavian or Scotch Ptarmigan (L. 

 mutus). Moreover, my specimens agree with the male seen by 

 Professor Newton, and with the figure given by Herr von Wright 

 in the Atlas of the French Expedition of 1838, in not having 

 " any of the entirely black feathers (on *the breast) which are so 

 distinctive of the real L. mutus." Nordenskiold, in the ' Voyage 

 of the Vega,' i., 130, says that on Spitzbergen, previous to 1872, 

 the Ptarmigan had only been found " in single specimens," but in 

 that year they discovered " an actual ptarmigan-fell in the neigh- 

 bourhood of our winter colony, immediately south of the 80th 

 degree of latitude. It formed the haunt of probably a thousand 

 birds ; at least a couple of hundred were shot there in the course 

 of the winter." Messrs. Evans and Sturge (" The Birds of 

 Western Spitzbergen," ' Ibis,' 1859, p. 169) found these birds 

 " very abundant," which is different to the common experience. 



3. Turnstone (Strepsilas interpres, L.). — I shot a single 

 specimen in Is Fjord on August 3rd. Professor Newton (loc. cit.) 

 mentions that both he and Dr. Malmgren respectively saw what 

 they believed to be examples of this species in different parts of 

 Is Fjord, in 1804, but my specimen is, I believe, the first of the 

 species recorded as obtained in Spitzbergen, though this is by no 

 means the northern limit of its range, being described by Major 

 H. W. Feilden in an Appendix by him* to the 'Narrative of a 

 Voyage to the Polar Sea during 1875-0,' by Capt. Sir G. S. Nares, 

 p. 210, as " tolex'ably abundant in Smith Sound and the region 

 north of it visited by the Expedition," and as breeding in the 

 neighbourhood of the winter-quarters of the ' Alert.' In a note 

 by the same author, in ' A Polar Reconnaissance,' by Capt. A. H. 

 Markham, p. 334, it is described as " Apparently rather rare in 

 Novaya Zemlya. Markham observed these, and obtained one, 

 in Matyushin Skav." It is not mentioned in the 'Voyage of the 

 Vega.' My Spitzbergen example is in the dark immature plumage, 

 and was moulting. 



4. Whimbrel (Numenius phceopus, Linn.). — I picked up a 

 dead Whimbrel on one of the Axel Islands, at the entrance to Van 

 Mijen's Bay, on July 31st, this being, I believe, like the last 



:;: Condensed from the ' Ibis,' 1877, pp. 401—412. 



